the_blathereum DannyH DannyH Whilst it is true that the first online version of blather was launched in the late twentieth century, blather has been around in hard copy form for a lot longer than that. Blather has existed in one form or another since before historical records began. The first fully functional blathereum was built in 1724 by Lord Tewkesbury and would represent the closest thing in early history to blather as it is enjoyed today. A huge auditorium, previously a theatre, was converted to accomodate an underground chamber in which a team of up to a hundred scribes were employed, working in conditions of unbelievable hardship. Members of the aristocracy would take their seats in the theatre and request a blathe from their own personal runner. He would disappear downstairs and return with a hastily copied transcript of the latest edition of their requested entry. The blateroon, as they were then called, would then either scribble an entry on the bottom of the page to be returned and copied to the master entry or select an underlined word and request that. The process of hypertexting was extremely laborious and required incredible amounts of time scouring through every entry whenever a new blathe was formed. On the stage of the blathereum a vast chalk board recorded each of the entries recorded for that, and the previous day. at the end of each day, the yesterday list was copied into a huge ledger which any blateroon could access whenever they wished. Another ledger was kept for each member of the honourable society of blateroons (membership of the club being a prerequisite of entry) which kept a log of all their entries. In the ten years between its inception and the day it collapsed under its own weight in 1734 there were six-thousand four hundred and twenty-two entries recorded, fourteen murders, twenty-eight deaths by blatherduel, several million spelling mistakes and four hundred cases of someone leaving in a huff only to return two months later. It was known as the golden age of blather and although later blathereums were larger and more technologically advanced, finally being made obselete by the internet, Lord Tewkesbury's blathereum is remembered as the true birthplace of modern blather. 030806 ... DannyH In truth, not much of the former glory of the blathereum is visible today. It resembles nothing so much as a hole that has filled itself with itself. After taking a few moments to honour the souls of the many blatherskites crushed under the weight of their own words you can head back to the train station : dh0010 030806 ... Dafremen Danny, you're a genie-us. I believe I've said that before but I'll say it again: Yo0 Ar Ay Geen E Us. : ) Daf 030806 ... User24 I really want to go to Tewkesbury now. 030807 ... Dafremen No sh*t, huh? I was practicing my British accent last night. 030807 ... u24 buys a blue ice cream from the shop. 040701 ... . . 050102 what's it to you? who go blather from